Barossa Valley railway line | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Status | dormant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | Barossa Valley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Termini | Gawler Angaston, Truro, Penrice | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Continues from | Gawler line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 8 September 1911 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | 25 June 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line length | 44.2 km (27.5 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of tracks | single track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track gauge | 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Barossa Valley railway line is a railway line with several branches, running from Gawler into and through the Barossa Valley. The original terminus was at Angaston. A branch was built from Nuriootpa via Stockwell to Truro, and a further branch from that to Penrice. The Angaston and Truro branches are closed and removed; the line to Penrice remains but has not been used since 2014.
The Angaston line opened from Gawler through Nuriootpa to Angaston in 1911. [1]
The line from Nuriootpa to Truro opened on 24 September 1917. [2] Before it had been built, there was public discussion about it continuing to Dutton, Steinfeld and Sedan. [3] The Truro line had also at various times been proposed to be extended to the Murray River at Blanchetown, [4] but this was rejected in 1923. [5]
By November 1950, a branch line from Light Pass on the Truro line to Penrice Quarry was built. The Truro line closed to passengers on 16 December 1968. Some freight trains and special tours by the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS) used the line to Truro until 1979 when Australian National declared the line unsafe. In the late 1970s the Truro line became the branch line and the Penrice line the mainline. The last ARHS special to operate past Penrice Junction was on 20 September 1981, when Rx 207 worked to Stockwell.
From 1987, the line beyond Stockwell was used to store surplus rolling stock. It was later removed and the track between there and Truro lifted. Remaining rollingstock between Penrice Junction and Stockwell was cleared during February 1990; with that section of line also being closed and later taken up. The line past Penrice junction was officially declared closed during 1992. Some relics of the line remain today. In 2010, the track between Angaston and Nuriootpa was lifted and a shared bike and pedestrian path was put in place. [6]
Bulk cement was transported by rail from the Adelaide Brighton Cement works adjacent to the railway line east of Stockwell Road on the western side of Angaston until the mid-1990s.[ citation needed ]
Since the cessation of the Penrice Stone Train to Penrice Quarry in June 2014, the line has been booked out of use. [7] [8] [9]
Regular passenger services ceased in the 1970s. In November 1996, TransAdelaide introduced a trial Sundays only service to Nuriootpa. [10] Later, the heritage Barossa Wine Train ran from Adelaide to Tanunda with Bluebird railcars. This ceased in April 2003. [11] Commuter passenger services were earlier withdrawn on 16 December 1968.[ citation needed ]
In March 2015, it was revealed that a consortium were seeking to resurrect the Barossa Wine Train and had an option to purchase three Bluebird railcars. [12]
There were a total of 7 stopping places on the line between Gawler and Angaston. [13]
On the Truro branch:
The Barossa Valley is a valley in South Australia located 60 kilometres (37 mi) northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major wine-producing region and tourist destination.
The Sturt Highway is an Australian national highway in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. The Sturt Highway is an important road link for the transport of passengers and freight between Sydney and Adelaide and the regions situated adjacent to the route.
The Barossa Valley Way is the main road linking most of the major towns of the Barossa Valley in South Australia. It is designated as state route B19 for its entire length. It is 34 km long, roughly following the North Para River.
Barossa Council is a local government area in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. The council area covers 912 square kilometres and had a population of over 23,000 as at the 2016 Census.
Light Regional Council is a local government area north of Adelaide in South Australia. It is based in the town of Kapunda, and includes the towns of Freeling, Greenock, Hansborough, Hewett, Roseworthy and Wasleys.
The first railway in colonial South Australia was a horse-drawn tramway from the port of Goolwa on the Murray River to an ocean harbour at Port Elliot in 1854. Today the state has 1,600 mm broad gauge suburban railways in Adelaide, a number of country freight lines, as well as key 1,435 mm standard gauge links to other states.
The Gawler railway line is a suburban commuter railway line in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. It is the only rail route in Adelaide to have no interchange with another line at any station except Adelaide.
Lyndoch is a town in Barossa Valley, located on the Barossa Valley Highway between Gawler and Tanunda, 58 km northeast of Adelaide. The town has an elevation of 175m and an average rainfall of 560.5mm. It is one of the oldest towns in South Australia.
The North Para River is a river located in the Barossa Valley of the Australian state of South Australia.
Angaston is a town on the eastern side of the Barossa Valley in South Australia, 77 km northeast of Adelaide. Its elevation is 347 m, one of the highest points in the valley, and has an average rainfall of 561 mm. Angaston was originally known as German Pass, but was later renamed after the politician, banker and pastoralist George Fife Angas, who settled in the area in the 1850s. Angaston is in the Barossa Council local government area, the state electoral district of Schubert and the federal Division of Barker.
The 2000/2100 class were a class of diesel railcars operated by the State Transport Authority and its successors in Adelaide. They were built by Comeng, Granville in 1979–1980.
The Barossa Light & Gawler Football Association, more commonly referred to as the BL&GFA, is an Australian rules football competition based in the Barossa Valley, Gawler Region and Light Region of South Australia, Australia. Just 42 kilometres north of the state capital of Adelaide, the BL&GFA is an affiliated member of the South Australian National Football League. In 2018, the Nuriootpa Football Club secured the premiership cup for an equal 7th time alongside the Tanunda Football Club. The current president of the League currently is Mick Brien and the major sponsor of the league is the Grant Burge Winery.
The Penrice Stone Train was a limestone train in South Australia that operated from the Penrice Quarry near Angaston on the Barossa Valley line to Penrice Soda Products' soda ash factory in Osborne in Adelaide's north-western suburbs, and the co-located Readymix concrete batching plant.
Barossa zone is a wine zone located in central South Australia west of the Murray River and which occupies the Barossa Valley, the Eden Valley and some adjoining land. The zone which is enclosed by the Mount Lofty Ranges zone on three sides and by the Lower Murray zone to its east, contains two wine regions which have received appellation as Australian Geographical Indications (AGI). These are the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley regions. The Barossa zone also includes a broader area around these two defined regions. The zone received AGI in 1996.
The Barossa Trail is a 40 kilometres (25 mi) cycling and walking path through the Barossa Valley in South Australia. Until 2019 the 27km between Gawler and Tanunda was named the Jack Bobridge Track.
The Leader is a weekly newspaper first published in Angaston, South Australia on 24 July 1918, and continues to the present day to be published in the Barossa Valley. It was the first English-language newspaper covering any part of the Barossa Valley, apart from the Kapunda Herald.
The Barossa state by-election, 1933 was a by-election held on 8 July 1933 for the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Barossa. The by-election was caused by the death on 4 June 1933 of independent MP Dr Herbert Basedow, who had regained the seat at the 1933 election less than two months prior. He had previously held the seat from 1927 to 1930.
The Hundred of Nuriootpa is a cadastral unit of hundred in the County of Light, South Australia split between in the eastern Adelaide Plains and western Barossa Valley. Named in 1847 for an indigenous term officially thought to mean "bartering place" and traditionally used as neutral ground for trading between various indigenous tribes, it is bounded on the south and east by the North Para River.
A by-election was held on 22 November 1924 for one of the seats of the three-member electoral district of Barossa, South Australia. The cause for the by-election was the death of William Hague on 9 October 1924. Despite a field of seven candidates from three parties for three seats at the general election in March, only two candidates stood for the by-election in November. The result was that Henry Crosby for the Liberal Federation with 3732 votes defeated Michael Joseph Murphy for the Labor Party with 3063 votes.